What is Web 3.0 going to be about?

I gave a talk yesterday together with @fusionview and @simplygroup about social media in Asia and the lessons for the UK.

One of the questions we were asked was about the role of mobile phones and the future of the interactive web.

In 2000, one-quarter of all mobile phones was in the hands of people in developing countries. By the beginning of 2009, this figure had risen to three-quarters of a total of 4 billion phones.
In the developing world, mobile phones are being used for all kinds of transactions from money transfers to the distribution of agricultural information and farming tips.
Experts believe that Africa and several parts of Asia will leapfrog PCs and go straight to mobile phones as a means of interacting online.

Are emerging markets going to lead the mobile revolution in the Web 3.0 era?

Which language does the world’s most popular leader speak?

I believe it is the language of emotions that has helped president Lula of Brazil to attain a rating of 80% - the highest on the planet.

I watched him yesterday being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN’s GPS.

When he talks about his background, he does it in such a way that you are instantly transported to the humble hut that used to get flooded. When he remembers being unemployed for 1 ½ year, you can almost touch the despair and see the kitchen table with no food on it, covered only by an old, worn-out oil-cloth.

While until recently his style would have been relegated without much further thought to the Latin-charm section, communicators in the global North now need to pay attention.

Blogging and citizen journalism are changing the way people relate to messages and information. Emotions are the new entry point. Only if you are able to connect to people’s deepest passions and hopes, will you be able to capture their attention and make them stick to your post long enough for them to digest it and decide to come back to your site in the future.

When asked by Zakaria about his recent meeting with president Obama, Lula answered simply by saying that “he prays for Obama more than he prays for himself”.

What a powerful way to sum up a situation that can no longer be described with words. Too many words have already been spent in an attempt to make sense of the current crisis … What people want to hear is something closer to their heart, something that can give them comfort.

Lula believes that the world is changing. Emerging markets like Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa are gaining influence in world politics. He is calling for international institutions to open up to their participation, starting with the UN Security Council.

Here is another reason why the global North should listen.

I have always had a strong suspicion.

The internet is connecting us human beings much faster than we have been able to fully comprehend. This is what NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Dov Seidman discuss in this interview.

I had a concrete demonstration of this during my visit to Russia last week. The BRIC countries are reaching out and talking to each other. The result is fascinating.

The global financial crisis has added unsettling speed to this process.

We are at the beginning of a new era.

Every time I enter the Moscow metro something tells me I’m home.

Fascinating… the kind of messages our mind broadcasts. It must be the fact that Prague has the same kind of subway.

I was in the Russian capital on Tuesday and, to my great delight, the moment I entered the metro, my system started telling me “You’re home, Silvia. We are taking care of you. The trains and stations must be familiar to you.”

So, I could switch off and dedicate myself to my favourite occupation while I travel: deciphering people’s thoughts.

I stood there looking at the faces of the passengers on the train imagining their hopes and tribulations.

It was my third time in Moscow. I love the food and I love the warmth of the people.

I was delighted to visit the board of IABC Russia. It is a great team. They are organising a great conference in February on communication practices in the BRIC countries.

I took the metro back at night and… the feeling was there again: the lure of the Moscow metro.

Photos: thanks to Elena Vasiltsova

A late-summer haze was embracing Venice, making the city appear even more surreal and giving the light of the sun reflected in the lagoon a comforting warm glow.

I had one day left in Venice and decided to visit La Biennale.

Six years ago, the work of art that had struck me most was an installation in the Russian pavillion. Rows of manikins dressed up as hooded monks were kneeling on the floor, rocking back and forth in some kind of strange mechanical meditation. The effect was overwhelming, the ambiguity of the scene intriguing. Were these mechanical ghosts chanting the prayers Mother Russia needs to find its lost soul again? Were they rocking back and forth to relieve Mother Russia’s pain?

Intriguing.

I don’t know if I would use the same word for The Last Riot, the 3D film exhibited this year in the Russian pavilion. It is described as a 3D animated model of cyberspace and a post-apocalyptic vision.

To the music of Wagner, we are transported into the middle of a mountain landscape, which is a mixture between a traditional Russian fairy tale (with merry-go-rounds and castles in pastel colours) and an unsettling utopia populated by rockets, windmills, trucks and trains. The scene changes and we are in the middle of a desert with giant lizards, oil wells and tanks. The scene changes again and we are in some kind of Miami Beach of the future which seems to be populated only by pink flamingos. These scenes are interrupted again and again by images of youths with the looks of fashion models, rioting and struggling in a war against themselves, a war without difference between aggressor and victim, male or female, good and bad, fate and free will.

The Last Riot is an enchanting, captivating feast for the eye. But when you try to dwell on its meaning, things get more complicated. Just when you start to believe that the whole thing is nothing more than a modern Russian fairy tale, an unsettling feeling takes form in your belly. Is it about society in a post-apocalyptic world which has experienced the failure of energy and technology? Is it about the need of humanity to constantly wage wars against itself? Or is it - like in the case of the rocking monks - about Russia’s vision of itself and its future?

We might be better off not knowing.

As a communicator, I was delighted to visit the installation by Iraqi-born artist Adel Abidin in the Nordic Pavillion. “Abidin Travels - Welcome to Baghdad” is a spoof travel agency where visitors can “book” trips to hellish Baghdad, “win” prizes and “rent” Humvees.

I have already talked on this blog about creative means of communication that can be used to make audiences relate to human suffering. Abidin’s “travel agency” is a brilliant example.